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at this hour breaking news. republicans in the house of representatives are working on aending a last-minute bill passed early this morning by the senate. i'm richard lui, you're watching msnbc's continuing coverage of the fiscal cliff deal. eric cantor emerging from a meeting saying he does not support the senate-passed bill. house speaker bonn janer is not likely to bring the senate bill to the floor without changes is what we're hearing and in a statement boehner's spokesman said the speaker and leader laid out options to the members and listened to feedback. the lack of spending cuts in the senate bill was our universal concern amongst members in today's meetings. conversations will continue throughout the afternoon on the path forward. outgoing republican congressman steven latourette told nbc's luke russert the senate bill did not stand much of a bill in the house. take a listen. >> i think it's a little unreasonable for senator reid to say that something they produced on new year's eve, produced by a

bunch of sleep-deprived octogenarians is what we should adopt within 48 hours. >> laetset's bring in mike viqu. we understand there have been meetings throughout the afternoon. >> reporter: the future of this bill, the deal to avert the fsk fiscal cliff and is in turmoil. here is what's happening right now. house republican leadership has just concluded a meeting in the speaker's suite of offices in the usa capitol. they have called a second meeting of all house republicans that's due to start at 5:15 in about 15 minutes. they're going to review their options, what can be done. meanwhile, a senate aide tells me that the senate is done. they are gone for the 112th congress that expires on noon thursday. if the house chooses to amend the senate bill, as you reported, it was sent over at 2:00 after an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 89-8, this senate aide tells me the senate

is not going to take it up, and house republicans are going to be responsible for, quote, the largest tax increase in american history. if that is a fact, if that is not a bluff, we are at serious crossroads. here are how things unfolded today. after the senate passed that bill by 89-8 once more, 5 republicans voted against it, 3 democrats voted against it, but other than that across the political spectrum it had support in the senate. this deal brokered by vice president biden and the republican leader mitch mcconnell. house republicans huddled this morning, house democrats huddled this morning. joe biden made another trip, his 1ekd second to two days to sell democrats on the proposal. not a lot of problems as far as we know although there are people on the left who say the president is giving up too much in terms of the income threshold over which people's taxes would rise, but putting that aside, more significantly, house speaker john boehner and the majority leader, the number two in the house, huddled their troops.

we started to get reports out of that meeting that there was a lot of dissatisfaction not only with the tax hike, which after all is a tax cut today. as of midnight tonight we're talking about cutting taxes, but the spending. not enough spending cuts in this bill to satisfy house republicans. eric cantor has come out against the bill and so the question is now how will the house act? if they choose to amend the bill and put in spending cuts, it's got to be sent back to the senate, and that's where that statement from that senate aide comes in. if the senate does not act, everything lapses in the 112th congress at noon on thursday when the new congress is sworn in, and what that means, richard, is that they've got to start the legislative process all over again, and all the turmoil and all the back and forth and the late nights and the negotiations we've seen hanging by a thread that have gone up to literally the last minute and really beyond the last minute are going to have to start all over again. today is a holiday obviously. people are not feeling the impact of what's going on here. the markets open tomorrow.

people are going to go back to work getting their paychecks that will see a much bigger bite taken out of them if congress cannot agree because of the higher taxes, those bush tax cuts that are going to lapse. >> this congress, as you have been telling us, they now have 43 hours to get something done and so many people are watching what's happening there in washington, d.c. mike viqueira, thank you so much. we'll be talking to you later. joining us now is congressman john yarmuth, democrat from kentucky. thanks for being with us today. a lot happening with your gop friends across the aisle as they are trying to put together perhaps an amendment is what our reporters are telling us. you and i have spoken over the last week several times, and earlier today you said something that you have said before. speaker boehner, you know, has taken on some bravery here. you give him some credit for that you said this morning. you called him courageous for being willing to send this deal to the floor. now that we're hearing these latest developments, excuse me, these latest developments,

what's your thought about house republicans and they're signaling they're going to send it back to the senate? >> well, richard, i think a couple things are clear. one is, yeah, i did think that speaker boehner was acting very courageously when he said he would bring the senate bill to the floor. now he's not willing to do that, so i probably have to retract what i said just about ten hours ago. but what's really disturbing is there apparently is absolutely no leadership among congressional republicans. i know mitch mcconnell very well, known him for a long time. i didn't think there was any way he would put his neck out for this deal unless he was absolutely confident that the republicans in the house would have ratified it. i think the fact that they're not indicates to me that this house republican conference is so ideologically driven that they would basically scorch the earth in defense of their own ideology, and the american people are the ones that are going to suffer, seniors, throughout the spectrum of the economy. businesses large and small if we

let this thing go over the cliff and don't repair it very quickly. i think everybody on our side of the aisle is baffled that this deal which again passed 89-8 in the senate last night could not -- they couldn't even bring 40 or 50 republican votes to the floor of the house tonight because we would have passed it with those votes. >> there were some republicans that luke russert had heard from, one member. he said they were absolutely incredulous that some of the things that were being said by those who oppose this deal during this gop conference. you take that incredulity that some republicans are seeing, you look at your caucus, is there any way that this might make it to the floor and we put the majority of the majority to a side for a moment and you cobble together perhaps the votes from both democrats and a portion of the republicans in the house? do you see that as at all possible? >> well, it's possible, but, again, i think it's going to require -- just based on the reporting that we're hearing and reading, it's going to depend on whether speaker boehner will say

to his conference, look, i pledged to bring this to the floor. we were negotiating in good faith. we're going to put this on the floor and let the chips fall where they may. the other thing that's disturbing is, i mean, i don't know what world they're living in, these members who think they can amend the bill and do anything but kill it. they know that that is the death knell of the agreement because the senate is, as you have reported, has gone home. >> what sort of spending cuts might you be open to considering if this does come to pass as we are hearing at the moment? >> well, right now i think we've got on the table the sequester is $1.2 trillion worth of cuts over the next -- $1.04 trillion i guess and nobody seems to want to do that. you know, the irony is republicans say they want to cut spending, but they don't want to cut what the american people want to cut which is defense spending and some of the huge corporate subsidies that permeate our tax code.

they say we need to deal with medicare and medicaid and social security but they know the american people don't want to cut those. talking is cheap and, you know, i think on our side of the aisle, we're firmly committed to seeing reasonable cuts in defense spending and, again, also to things like the oil company subsidy, big agra business subsidies. i think that's where our caucus is pretty much unanimous. >> thank you so much. i appreciate your time. >> okay, richard. >> congressman john yarmuth in a busy time in washington, d.c. also in washington, d.c. is e.j. deon, senior fellow at the brookings institute and msnbc contributor. thanks for joining us. >> happy new year. >> happy new year to you, too. we have some things to talk about on this day. when we look at the house republican conference meeting this afternoon, they're about to undertake another one in about seven or eight minutes, we'll be watching that closely, you look at the folks you have there.

you have john boehner, you have the republican speaker of the house there not speaking up or voicing his opinion on the senate's bill. you have eric cantor, the number two republican in the house, saying he's against it. when you see this balance, it sort of reminds us of this duality the two have had over recent years. is this cantor basically pushing boehner out in front? >> you did have a suspicion when this news first broke that cantor might be preparing to run against boehner for speaker, but i just don't think that's going to happen. it's possible, but that would be surprising. but this whole business is surprising because as congressman yarmuth said, the last thing you expected was that the house republicans were going to slap mitch mcconnell in the face. you can't get more bipartisan than an 89-8 vote. there were only eight senators and only five republicans who voted against it. you would think that if speaker boehner would actually allow

this to the floor and if he said, look, do we want this or do weigh want $3.5 trillion in tax increases? do we want this or do we want a stock market to crash, they could find republican votes because i think if this doesn't pass and things go very bad over the next few days, it's going to be the house republicans who own it, and it's hard to believe they want to do that, but it appears that their ideological sort of commitments are going to push them in that direction, at least they are as of the time they went into that meeting. you wonder what's going to be said in that meeting. >> you know, e.j., if you look at the -- what has happened over the last 12, 14 hours, are there items perhaps that have caused us to come to this point where we're looking at the gop caucus now reconsidering or considering for the first time what came over from the senate, that strongly bipartisan bill. for instance, a number that came out was the cbo.

they had put an estimate, a cost at some $3.7 trillion. do you think that might be hanging heavy on some of those tea party republicans as they consider this bill that came over from the senate? >> it might be but if you did what they wanted to do and kept all of the tax increase -- tax cuts, you'd add $4.6 trillion to the deficit. so this can't really be about the deficit even if that's what they're telling themselves. you know, there are 30 to 60 really, really conservative republicans in that caucus, and if you're going to give them a kind of veto power, you're never going to get anything through the house in the next two years that can pass the senate. this is a real crisis of governance and it looked like boehner was facing up to that. congressman yarmuth had praised him ten hours ago because you could pass something, i think, with a modest number of republican votes. so i think this meeting they're having now, it could be about

tactics, about how to teal with the mes we're about to go into, but there may be some republicans standing up and saying do we really want to throw us over the cliff in this way? i think this is one of the most important meetings the republican party has had since their convention and maybe more so. >> e.j., we have one more minute. i want to get your perspective on this. if it does go back to the senate, is it dead for the 112th? what's your thought here? >> i think it's dead. i think these are kind of poison pill amendments. the senate has gone home. they did a bipartisan thing. i think if this does not pass the house, then we're going into the new congress. >> all right. thank you so much. i appreciate your time. e.j. dionne. >> good to be with you. >> happy new year to you. >> thank you. stay with msnbc throughout the day for the latest on the fiscal cliff negotiations. again, the bipartisan bill 89-8 coming from the senate. that was passed at 2:00 this morning. it does not look good right now

when it comes to the house. we had heard from the number two republican, eric cantor, that he cannot support it as-is and we also have heard from our own luke russert that based on what one member told him, 40 members from the gop conference stood up and spoke. 37 of those 40 were against the senate bill that came over 89-8. now, if it does get amended as we have just been discussing with mike viqueira and e.j. dionne, the question is will the senate take that up. we are hearing right now they will not. we'll continue to cover this issue for you. the fiscal cliff negotiations. we'll be right back with "hardball." there are patients who will question,

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the rising political star of 2013, chris hayes, who will that be? >> massachusetts senator elizabeth warren i think. it's not an easy thing to do what she did. i think people -- she was a star on this network and among progressives, but to go win statewide office particularly as a woman in massachusetts, that

takes some doing and i think she'll be an absolute force. >> steve, the rising star? >> it mains me a bit to say because i'm not that much of a fan but this is going to be the year when cory booker makes his year. he's going to run for governor or decide to run against -- >> not just in new jersey. krystal, the rising star? >> new congresswoman from hawaii, tulsi gabbard. she's the first hindu american in congress. >> never heard of this person. >> really amazing woman. combat veterans. >> alex, the rising star. >> i ask you to go with chris first because i thought it would provide me some cover. i was going to say elizabeth warren. >> sure you were. >> it's true. >> do you want to give up going first again? >> i would like to go first again. >> you go first next time. i am going to agree with alex wagner, not chris hayes, alex wagner. we're going to be back with more of the last word holiday party. stay with us. ♪ oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

the literati send out their minions to do their bidding. washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. the fire fight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. a lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. but out of the billowing smoke and dust have tweets and trivia

emerged gingrich. >> that, of course, was the best actual political theater of 2012, tony award winner tony lithgow's reed ra he hadding -- reading of a new gingrich press release. we are going to start with alex wagner. >> it was the best because i couldn't believe it was happening in mid-august. mitt romney took to the whiteboard to explain what he was doing with medicare. which in and of itself was a hoax but the notion that this man would have this horribly staged managed moment in an effort to show he was all about business just completely blew up in his face and cemented every narrative out there. >> i don't know if the mikes can pick it up but drinks are being spilled over there at the table.

>> joy reid. >> krystal ball, the best political theater. >> i also have a newt gingrich moment. when he turned questions about him asking his former wife for an open marriage, parlayed that into a debate moment, a huge applause moment at a debate and then parlayed that into an actual victory in the south carolina primary. it was incredible. >> we happen to have that video cued up. let's take a look at newt. >> she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. [ applause ] i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and i

am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. [ applause ] >> that was obviously my choice, too, for best political theater. that's why we had that ready. steve, best political theater. >> and i remember that my favorite thing about that episode was it turned out in the reporting afterwards that when they went to a commercial break, gingrich went up to john king and was like, no hard feelings. >> there shouldn't have been. >> it was very helpful to him. >> it really was theater. my favorite moment was in the final presidential debate when mitt romney thought he had landed the killer blow against barack obama. >> oh, yes. >> on libya. failure to call it a terrorist attack. >> started physically closing in. >> that line when obama knew exactly what was happening, exactly the trap, and he says, governor, proceed. >> please proceed, governor. >> we don't have that cued up in video. chris? >> i thought the entire democratic convention was pretty

flawlessly done from the pure perspective of theatrics, especially compared to the republican convention. i specifically thought bill clinton's speech, i thought that was -- it was kind of political theater at its best in so far as it was genuinely edifying. he didn't do the cheap and easy thing which was surfacey. he went into the weeds of the details of the policy and explained them and it actually made for great theater. >> worst political theater. >> i can't believe we haven't mentioned it before, herman cain's entire campaign. he was never running. it was theatrics. he was an actor on the national stage. at the end of the day it was theater. >> wor snst. >> first, i want to point out this is water before i get a lot of tweets. >> we are the water drinkers. >> water team. so worst political theater, i would say after the 47% comments came out and mitt romney decided to do this hurried press conference where he looked

frazzled, the hair was a little askew and he really had nothing to say and essentially dug the hole deeper for himself. i think that was the worst political theater of the campaign other than clint eastwood. >> right after the critical michigan primary, the romney primary is on the ropes. the romney campaign says we're going to turn it around with a major economic speech and they rent out the detroit lions football stadium, 55,000 seats and there's about.0002% full. the wide shot was one of the most hilarious things i have ever seen. >> chris, worst political theater? >> i think it was the numbers of the president's campaign after first debate. very, very, very gamely attempting to put a happy face on the performance. >> for me it was a particular moment in the herman cain campaign. >> becit was when he had stuff twirling around in his head.

>> so you agreed with president obama on libya or not? >> okay, libya. president obama supported the uprising, correct? i do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason. no, that's a different one. i got to go back and see. got all this stuff twirling around in my head. >> oh, we miss him so badly. we're going to be back with more of the biggest surprise of 2012,

donald trump person of the year award.

and the sorry to see you go category. chris hayes. >> legendary major league baseball union president marvin miller who died this year at 95. i got the pleasure of interviewing him last year when i was working on my book. totally and completely transformed and revolutionized both major league baseball and professional sports and converted a system that was essentially indentured servitude in which owners could basically pay players nothing into the modern free agent system in which players can actually recoup a fair market value for the value they add to the owners. >> steve, sorry to see you go? >> joe early was a congressman from worcester, massachusetts, he was my kind of politician and my kind of congressman.

he cared about that city. he brought lots of money back, projects back and he lost his career in a trumped up fake scandal that rick santorum and john boehner created. he lost his career, his reputation. he was put on trial, was exonerated but spent the last 20 years totally unappreciated and he died this year and i think he deserves at least a little recognition. >> krystal? >> phyllis diller. >> alex, sorry to see you go? >> i have two. george mcgovern and robby shancar. very different men. their losses will be felt in different worlds but they were kingmakers. >> and i'm very sorry to see go whitney houston. >> yeah. >> we're going to be back with more of our last word holiday show. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

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welcome back to the last word holiday party. our new category is the biggest surprise of 2012. karen finney, what was the biggest surprise of 2012? >> that we were able to call the election right around 11:00. >> you know, i wasn't surprised by that. >> you weren't spice surprised? >> that's what i thought would happen. >> i thought it would be a much longer night and i really thought it was going to be a much bigger mess and i did not think the president was going to be able to win without us having some debacle in florida. thankfully we didn't. >> the biggest surprise was mitt romney actually chose paul ryaned a his running mate. you have to say i said on a very last word on this very show in the after show to this show and i think i was with ari, you know, who should romney pick? pick paul ryon. ideological he's the right guy

but as a democrat i was secretly like please pick ryan. >> thereto were so many reasons not to pick him. >>s a democrat it was the perfect thing because it crystallized all the things that democrats didn't like about mitt romney and the case they wanted to make about him, this sort of distaste for the ordinary person, for the 47%, the idea of voucherizing medicare, all of that was crystallized in one person and he picked him to be his running mate. i was very surprised. >> ari, biggest surprise of 2012? >> the biggest spris to me was something that was way behind the scenes. the debate commission makes these rules and they're usually secret. this year they leaked, first on time and gawker.com. it turns out the debate rules restrict the moderator from doing any fact checking or any commenting or response to the answers the candidates give and we never knew that before because it's this secret cabal between the candidates and the commission. it's crooked and i think sort of very untransparent in a lot of ways. we learned that and i think next

cycle there's going to be a lot of pressure to change the rules. >> i hate the rules and did a couple rewrites on the show about the rules. my biggest surprise of 2012 was president obama's performance in the first debate. i kind of went what? >> that was everyone's -- >> and it didn't completely start to settle on me until we were about 50 minutes in. because i was kind of -- you're kind of waiting for the engine to start and it didn't quite -- >> it's going to -- and then it didn't. >> it was amazing. >> i think they were so confident in their math in the obama campaign they didn't go into that debate taking it all that seriously and i don't think he thought why am i here with that guy. >> it's that incumbent president thing. that first debate is always, oh, boy, i'm so out of shape at this. >> rusty. >> he didn't take eye contact seriously either. he was sort of -- >> yeah. now, here is the -- this comes to our annual donald trump award. donald trump has been winning

this award for the last 20 years on the show. and so it's been named after him. it is the most embarrassing -- the person who has embarrassed himself or herself the most in the year 2012. >> at least he's consistent. >> for you, karen, this year the donald trump award goes to -- >> i have to say herman cain. >> yeah. >> in that interview when he couldn't remember. >> in that video we just saw. >> maybe a close second with governor perry with trying to remember the three agencies. ouch, ouch, ouch. it just hurt. it hurt. >> and the difference is perry actually was running for president and cain was running for fame. joy, the donald trump award? >> since karen took the two that i would have taken. john sununu. he was the worst surrogate i have ever seen in my house. he was everything that's wrong with the republican party's brand. surly and condescending and racially incensensitive and ug l i and he kept talking.

>> ari, the donald trump award goes to who this year? >> my trump award goes to karl rove. >> oh, yeah. >> on election night? >> on politics -- both, on politics election night he had no idea what was going on. on. si this was the year when we really saw the public turn against his enduring legacy of trying to write discrimination into state constitutions against people who happened to be gay. the republic and republican party are turning against that. that's going to be his legacy for a long time on this civil rights issue. >> as i said, for 20 years here on the show the donald trump award has gone to donald trump and once again i feel i will be giving it to donald trump. because i do find the impossible to outdo donald trump on embarrassing yourself. there are a couple people who tried to outdo donald trump. let's take a look at, for example, todd akin. >> oh, yeah. >> first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare.

if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> and just when you thought he had that whole jurisdiction wrapped up, there came richard myr murdo murdoch. i think it is something that god intended to happen. >> they are legitimate runners-up for the donald trump award. >> why did he sound ill? he always sounds like he's not feeling well on top of it. >> there were a number of male, mostly male, republican legislators in state legislatures across the country who made similar country who can remain nameless but let's give them a hat tip about being that stupid about women. >> how about the people who wrote the republican party's platform this year? they completely agreed. >> coming up, the person who we

are not sorry to see go. also, we will be picking the person of the year, biggest winner, biggest loser. stay with us. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

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or weird... or wonderfully the market's behaving... which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. now for the not sorry to see you go category. ari melber, who are you not sorry to see go? >> alan west. >> you took mine. >> you took my answer -- >> mine, too. >> now people know this is real. >> all right. alan west. yeah. joy -- >> that was my answer. >> who was your runner up? >> i guess my runner up has to be dick morris. i think we're rid of him. >> i don't know. >> he's sort of like a bad penny. >> i think he's just hibernating. >> maybe he can o blooib blige us and go away. >> karen finney? >> i think i'm going to have to

go with jim demint. >> he's going to disappear. this nonsense this is a better job than being senator. he's going to run a stupid foundation in d.c. it's actually kind of great to get rid of him. and the people who are really not sorry to see him go are republicans in the senate who he was driving crazy. democrats in the senate actually liked having a nut like that to kind of paint the whole party. >> can i give a runner-up now. the tea party, the funny hats, the loud, obnoxious rallies. >> and they have functionally disappeared. >> basically. >> they had nothing to say during the fiscal cliff crisis. we'll be back with the picks for person of the year. biggest winner, biggest loser, a lot more. stay with us. [ man ] visa prepaid opened a new world for me.

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my paycheck is loaded right on my card. automatic. i am not going downtown standing in line to cash it. i know where my money is, because it is in my pocket. i got more time with my daughter, we got places to go. [ freeman ] go open a new world, with visa prepaid. more people go with visa. welcome back to the last word holiday party. it's now time for the person of the year award. ari melber, who was the person of the year? >> i was think being this. it's a night for celebration but i think it's also a night to honor people and for me when you look at 2012 it would be congresswoman gabrielle giffords. she resigned this year after a heroic battle dealing with the gunshot wounds that she experienced. we obviously keep her in our thoughts and our prayers, but she was also a leader and believed in public policy and

we're going to have to look as we go forward into the next year over how we deal with this enduring problem of gun violence in our country. >> joy reid? >> this may sound a little corny but i picked for my americyear american voter. >> it does sound corny. >> it does sound corny. >> you said a group. you didn't say the country. >> it's a group. >> it's very "time" magazine. >> it is. but i never in mylitime have to see people endure so many hoops, so many obstructions. >> seven hours in line. >> ait, nine. >> and a the overt, i have never seen it so overt, whether it was in ohio db. >> you're winning me over. this is not corny. >> when people fought against the right to vote this cycle more than i have ever seen in my life, i felt like i was being transported back to the 1960s or the '50s, and in florida where they passed legislation preventing black voters from

being able to vote. i thought people's resilience, people's resolve, people's determination, i met 60-year-old people, older women, people who had disabilities who said i'm staying in line if it has to be all da i. i was very proud of them. it's corny but -- >> no, it's not. you beat me on that. >> the i am imagines were the most powerful, people waiting in line. >> karen finney? >> mine is ma la la. she reminded us about things that are far more important in ternls of what the big struggles in this world are about and particularly at a time when republicans were trying to tell women that this war on women is all in our heads. i think it was a good reminder for women what we have fought for and what we continue to fight for. >> she was shot in the head by the pakistani taliban because she wants education for girls and women. we have some video of her. let's take a look at that. >> i have a new dream, so i

thought i must be a politician to serve this country. >> why did you change this dream? >> because there's so many crises in our country, so i want to remove these crises and to serve my country. >> and you'll notice there's a little person of the year bug on the video because she is my choice for person of the year which is why we had that video ready to go. krystal ball, your person of the year? you can just say i agree. you can. there's nothing wrong with that. >> i have to go with -- i know mine is corny too, but i have to go with president obama. he really survived a lot of adversity. he really i think was vindicated in a lot of ways. >> i don't think you ever have to make the case for the president being the person of the year. alex wagner? >> i am really boring but i was echo krystal because i think he's comported himself with so much honesty and kindness. >> steve you're the tiebreaker because there's two with us -- >> i'm not breaking any tie.

i'm going on my own "family feud" style. i'm saying john roberts, the supreme court chief justice because at the height of an election season with immense pressure from the conservative movement and peer pressure from within the court, this guy said the affordable care act, it stands. >> good point. >> coming up, we're going to have the biggest winner, the biggest loser. that's a different concept than person of the year. think about this. that's coming up. we're going to be right back with more of the last word holiday party. "the last word" holiday party. [ human league plays "i'm only human" ] [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay -- you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com.

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♪ welcome back to "the last word" holiday party. we are now going to pick our biggest winner and biggest loser of 2012. i'm going to break the routine. i'm going to go first. >> okay. >> one reason i'm going first on biggest loser is because my

choice is wicked obvious. okay? and there's no sense waiting around for the big suspense of my decision. >> just drop the bomb. >> i am choosing willard mitt romney. i'm doing that because the man lived his entire life for this year to be the republican nominee. his father told him go out and get rich, mitt. and then run for office. you know, when you can afford to. so he followed his father's plan. he ignored a lot of what his father actually thought about politics and governing. things like letting people see your tax returns, 12 years of them which his father did. so mitt romney after having lived his life to do this to run his campaign is now at home tonight with his tax returns. he is the biggest -- he's the biggest loser in america. >> but he won that battle. >> biggest loser.

anybody who was taking their cues from the romney campaign polls in the last couple of weeks and was out there talking about 300 electoral votes. that was really fun. >> it was a close tie. i thought about paul ryan. being associated with the biggest loser is almost as bad as being the biggest loser. >> losing on the vice presidential slot, there's nowhere to go. >> it was a tie between him and rupert murdoch. this year his entire news empire was exposed for the fraud it is. they were literally humiliated. their narrative of the campaign proved to be completely false. now their credibility is in tatters. and you had the phone hacking scandal. he's just a mess right now. so i'm giving him the tie slight edge over ryan. >> biggest loser? >> for me it was a long time coming. i remember when i first started working for marie cantwell on the held. we would have proposals or be

discussing things. people would say you can't do that because of the pledge. i said i didn't know. what's the pledge? what is the pledge. i guess i need to learn about it. and the pledge is slowly, not completely -- >> grover norquist. >> grover norquist anti-tax pledge which is no way to run a business, no way to run a government. revenues are important if you understand a balance sheet. that thing has haunted us for a long time. >> krystal ball, the biggest loser. >> mine has helped in part helped rupert murdoch which is karl rove. many people thought even if they didn't like him, he was very smart. he exposed himself to not be very smart on election night on the other network. >> we only have two people left who might please me by choosing donald trump. let's see what happens. your biggest loser of 2012? >> donald trump. it's not, it's not. >> correct! you get the ipad.

>> i hate to disappoint you. it's sheldon adelson. >> yes. >> and the house lost big. >> that was great. >> steve kornacki, the biggest. >> i want an ipad, but my biggest loser is the name that was for generations the gold standard in public opinion polling. gallup. and for all of october right up to election day said romney has an advantage and is going to win this race. they had about six two weeks for the election. people are going to look for skeptically coming up. >> biggest winner. again, i'm going to go first because once again, i couldn't be more obvious. i just think the guy who wins the presidential election is really, you know, by every measure the biggest winner. and he did it with this crushing unemployment rate on his

administration which he did everything he could possibly do to fix. but he didn't have it politically fixed by the time he went into re-election. he got re-elected with an unemployment number that everybody thought was impossible. so that credit goes to president obama. biggest winner of 2012 for me. karen finny. >> i'm going with the home team and say msnbc because we kicked that other network. >> don't even try to get the ipad. she gets the ipad. >> you previewed mine. i was going to say nate silver. because i think math was a huge winner this year. he looked at the numbers and polls properly. he understood the relative weight of gallup and better polls. the people who understood that if 28% of the electorate was going to be minority and if the president could pull 80% of that electorate he could win. and nate silver understand that for a very long time. you were quoting him every night on this show. he's a big winner. >> ari, the biggest winner of 2012. >> i want to pick up on joy's

flavor. you put her on blast tonight for being corny. and i'm going to be corny with you now. >> okay. join me. >> and say government intervention in our economy was the biggest winner. barack obama came into office after tremendous elite failure, fundamental distrust of what our government can do. and he basically -- if you really boil it down, he outlined a series of proposals that intervened in our markets, the health care market, insurance market, car market. and each one of those things has worked and he's won over a public that we know is angry and skeptical. you said he's the guy because he won. i'm saying part of what he did was reknew a faith in what we knew we need. >> krystal ball. >> i was attempted also to go with barack obama, but i'm going to take claire mccaskill. she'd been written off. nobody thought she could win

that seat again in missouri. she won the crazy candidate jackpot and was smart and strategic about how she parlayed that into a victory. but i think she is a big winner by being back in the senate. >> biggest winner of 2012. >> hillary rodham clinton. 2016. she's the teflon donna. you can't touch her. >> no. that's good. steve kornacki. >> i'm going to piggyback on what you said earlier. i think the biggest winner of 2012 was the biggest winner of 1968. george romney. he exited with his politics in tatters. and the son by failing to live up to his father resuscitated george romney. i think the public's estimation of george romney emerges in a much better place this year than it was before this election. >> that's a good one. i like that. so gang, thank you all for a